September 6, 2017
Delaware News
Delaware Public Media
United Way of Delaware calls for gay-straight alliances in all first state schools
LGBTQ youth are four times more likely than their peers to attempt suicide. That’s why the United Way of Delaware wants all Delaware schools to do more to support them. Gay-Straight Alliances, often called GSAs, are student-run clubs for LGBTQ students and their peers. Bob Martz with the United Way of Delaware’s PRIDE Council says all First State middle schools and high schools should have them.
Smyrna-Clayton Sun-Times
New superintendent begins new school year in Smyrna
Patrik Williams is starting his first school year as superintendent of the Smyrna School District on a positive note after facing a dilemma this summer. Williams was promoted from assistant superintendent by the Smyrna Board of Education after Debbie Wicks announced she was retiring. Wicks served for 19 years as superintendent and 40 years total in the district.
Sussex County Post
First-day-of-school retirement celebration provides inspiration, connection
A tradition linked to retirement and the Indian River School District’s new school year continued Tuesday morning. Horns honked and cheers rang out along State Street in Millsboro Tuesday morning during the 4th Annual Retired Teachers’ first day of school celebration. Eight retirees, all but one with direct staff ties to the Indian River School District, waved to buses and vehicles headed to and from East Millsboro Elementary School and Millsboro Middle School.
The News Journal
Black men in suits visit East Side school
Parents stared, confused. Children waffled, ambivalent about what they were about to walk into. The 25 black men dressed in well-tailored suits, ties, and dress shoes was an incongruous sight to families at EastSide Charter School in Wilmington. The East Side neighborhood is known for its high-crime rate, as well as being the site of multiple shootings. And many of the students that go to EastSide Charter live nearby, either in the neighborhood itself or other parts of Wilmington.
Want fewer school districts? Now’s your chance to speak up
Editorial
We constantly hear from readers who think Delaware should consolidate school districts. Many taxpayers believe we are paying too many six-figure salaries to superintendents and other administrators. They say it doesn’t make sense to split a state with fewer than a million people into 19 different districts, each with their own bureaucracies. If you believe that school redistricting needs to happen, now is the time to speak up.
National News
Education Week
In Harvey’s wake, a rough road ahead for schools
Educators in school districts serving about 1 million students along the Texas coast are picking up the pieces after Hurricane Harvey pummeled the area during what was supposed to be the first days of the new school year. Some of the roughly 220 affected school districts still planned to open right after Labor Day, others in a matter of weeks, but for school administrators who have survived other devastating natural disasters, they know the road to normalcy can take years.
NPR
Protesters in D.C., Denver, LA, elsewhere demonstrate against rescinding DACA
President Trump’s decision to rescind an Obama-era policy deferring action against children of undocumented immigrants is drawing scattered protests around the country. Hours before Attorney General Jeff Sessions made the widely anticipated announcement to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, better known as DACA, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the White House.
The 74 Million
Congress returns to a lengthy education to-do list, from implementing ESSA to rewriting the higher education act
After a summer in which tempers flared over education issues like budgets and school choice, the House and Senate returned to Washington Tuesday with a lengthy to-do list, nearly all of which touches on education. Members must fund the government, including the Education Department; raise the debt ceiling by the end of the month; provide aid to areas devastated by Hurricane Harvey, including scores of schools; and, possibly, find a solution for undocumented “Dreamers,” who President Donald Trump announced Tuesday will lose protections in six months unless Congress acts.
The Miami Herald
How to fix failing schools? Miami-Dade seeks $2.3 million in teacher bonuses to do it
How do you fix struggling schools? One idea: Pay teachers more. Teacher bonuses are among several ideas the Miami-Dade and Broward school districts have proposed as they compete for additional funding through a controversial new state program designed to rehabilitate Florida’s lowest performing schools while potentially supplanting them with privately run charters.
The New York Times
Michigan gambled on charter schools. Its children lost.
Toss a dart at a map of Detroit, and the bull’s-eye, more or less, would be a tiny city called Highland Park. Only three square miles, Highland Park is surrounded by Detroit on nearly all sides, but it remains its own sovereign municipality thanks largely to Henry Ford, who started building Model Ts there in 1910.